South Korean court rules Apple, Samsung guilty of patent infringement

It’s likely that neither Apple Inc. nor Samsung Electronics Co. is happy with the outcome of a ruling a South Korean court delivered today in the bitter patent battle between the two companies.

Today a three-judge panel in Seoul Central District Court found that Apple infringed two Samsung patents, and Samsung violated one of Apple’s patents. Both companies must pay damages to each other and must stop selling the infringing smartphones and tablets—including Apple’s iPhone 4 and iPad 2 and Samsung’s Galaxy S, Galaxy SII, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Tab and Galaxy 10.1—in South Korea.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the ruling is more symbolic than impactive. Apple and Samsung are still engaged in international patent litigation with each other, and deliberations began this week in a high-profile jury trial in San Jose, Calif. Mark Newman, a senior research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, told Bloomberg Businessweek that the South Korea ruling “will have little impact” on the U.S. case.

For more InsideCounsel stories on the Apple-Samsung patent battle, read: